Not Applicable
Not Applicable
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to determining at least one characteristic of a photoreceptor, and more particularly, when the photoreceptor is used for xerography.
2. Description of the Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
Most lower-end copiers and printers on the market today use consumer replaceable units (CRU""s) to package the parts, such as toner and photoreceptor (PR), which require replacement several to many times through the useful life of the machine. In most of these CRU""s, the life limiting element is related to toner, either through finite supply or finite waste toner sump capacity. The photoreceptors have demonstrated an ability to provide multiple CRU lives; in most cases, the failure mode of the photoreceptor is physical wear, either localized, as in scratches or dings, or in approximately uniform wearing away of the charge transport layer (CTL) coating. Refurbishers have built a significant business on the long lives of photoreceptors in CRU""s by doing simple inspection of spent CRU""s for obvious PR damage, refilling the toner sump and emptying the cleaner sump on those CRU""s without obvious damage, and reselling the refurbished cartridge. Without disassembling the CRU and using sophisticated test equipment, the refurbisher has no simple way of assessing his risk of returning a PR which might fail due to having been worn too much. In addition, photoreceptor-only CRUs are now sometimes present in higher-end machines, thereby making in situ photoreader assessment even more desirable to extend useful CRU life.
It is noted that U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,987,660, 5,504,383, 5,602,626, 5,457,523, 5,777,651, and 5,510,879 all show charging a PR, but do not show making measurements. U.S. Pat. No. 2,904,431 shows using alcohol for charging a PR, but no measurements are taken.
It is therefore desirable to have apparatus and method for obtaining the usable time left for a PR to properly function.
Apparatus for use with a photoreceptor comprises an ionic medium for contacting the photoreceptor to permit at least one of the charging and discharging operations of said photoreceptor and measuring circuitry for measuring at least one characteristic of said photoreceptor proximately during at least one of said operations.
A method for use with a photoreceptor comprises performing at least one of charging and discharging operations on the photoreceptor using a ionic medium and measuring at least one characteristic of said photoreceptor proximately during at least one of said operations.